QUARRY VOCABULARY… WORDS TO KNOW!

  • Aggregates – Rocks, sand, gravel and other materials that are used in construction.
  • Berm – An earthen barrier, covered with native plants, that provides a physical and   visual screen between public property and a quarry site. Berms also limit access to the site and help keep noise levels down in the community.
  • Blasting – The process of using explosives to break large pieces of rock out of the earth.
  • Buffer zone – An area surrounding a quarry that helps provide a visual and sound barrier between the quarry and the surrounding community. Buffer zones often include berms.
  • Closed loop water system – A system of capturing and recycling the water used in the quarry.
  • Conveyor belt – An endless, moving, flexible belt that takes rocks from one place to another around the processing plant.
  • Crushers – The machines used to break big rocks down into smaller rocks. Rocks go through several different size crushers during the processing operation.
  • Crushed stone – Rock that is crushed to a specific size in a quarry processing plant.
  • Discharge – Water meeting environmental standards that is allowed to leave a settling pond and go into a stream or river. Water quality regulations and a quarry’s environmental permits cover water discharges.
  • Drilling – The process of putting holes in the ground where explosives will be placed for blasting.
  • Dust suppression – The process of reducing the amount of dust that goes into the air.
  • Explosives – The material that is detonated during the blasting process to break big pieces of rock out of the earth. The explosive used in the stone industry is not dynamite, but a mixture of ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel called ANFO.
  • Geologist – Someone who studies nature and the earth.
  • Haul trucks – Trucks that haul loads of rocks from the pit to the primary crusher at the processing plant.
  • Hydrogeologist – a person who studies the way groundwater moves through soil and rock.
  • Mining – the process of digging rocks out of the earth. It can be under the ground (coal mining) or above ground in an open pit quarry.
  • Permitting – The process of getting approval from local and state government agencies to operate a quarry.
  • Pit – Another name for a quarry. A place where rocks are dug or mined out of the earth.
  • Pit loader – An excavation tool that helps move the rocks from the earth into haul trucks.
  • Primary crusher – The first crusher that big rocks are crushed by. The primary crusher makes the rocks small enough to go through the secondary and tertiary crushers.
  • Processing plant – Where rocks from the quarry are taken to be processed into different sizes. The processing plant begins at the primary crusher.
  • Quarry – A place where rocks are dug or mined out of the earth.
  • Quarry wall – The boundary of the quarry, as viewed from inside the pit. Also, the part of a quarry where blasting takes place.
  • Recycling pond – A place where water is stored and recycled for use in quarry operations.
  • Screening – Different size screens are used to separate rocks into piles of the same size. Rocks are passed through several different size screens during processing.
  • Sediment – Sand and other matter that is in the water that we recycle. Sediment is heavier than water and settles to the bottom of a recycling pond.
  • Sedimentary rocks – A type of rock that develops from the consolidation of sediments that have been deposited by one of three methods of weathering. They are as follows: mechanical, chemical, or organically extracted. Some rocks formed from these processes are sandstones and shales (mechanical), limestone and dolomite (chemical ), and marl (organic).
  • Shipping loader – Shipping loaders are used to put rocks into a customer’s truck.
  • Stockpile – Large piles of rocks and sand where dump trucks go to pick up loads of the construction materials.
  • Vibrations – Movement caused by blasting.
  • Water quality regulations – Federal, state and local laws that must be met if water is allowed to flow from a quarry site into a stream or river.

NOTE – This list of quarry related vocabulary words is based on an online educational program The Quarry Story  by Vulcan Materials Company on Social Responsibility.